"The last time we looked at Silicon Valley's lobbying efforts, Google was the big spender and Apple the piker. That hasn't changed much in the past nine months. In fact, Google increased its political spending in 2012 - a Presidential election year - by nearly 90%, while Apple reduced its by 13%." Anti-SOPA or no, that's a hell of a lot of money. This should be illegal - it's thinly veiled corruption.

Repeal the 17th? Heck no. My state is *more* corrupt than the Federal government. All of the gerrymandering that takes place to form the US house also exists at the state level. The direct election of senators is the one thing that results in good representation of my state.

I don't really understand why anyone would think that removing that direct link would be a good idea. The only think that makes sense to me, is that you prefer the way your state government is elected (gerymandering and all) than what a direct vote of all citizens. The only way you would like that is if it results in politics that you prefer. I'm a bit idealistic in that I prefer that the process is fair, more than I prefer that I have my way.